A Steal, A Block, A Championship: Defense Fuels Iowa Win
MINNEAPOLIS -- Iowa is known as DB U for the prowess of the assembly line of defensive backs that have come through the ranks of Phil Parker's secondary.
On Sunday, a different Iowa team relied on ball-hawking, playmaking defense to secure a huge victory. Iowa used key stops and big plays on defense, especially by senior leaders Caitlin Clark and Gabbie Marshall, to engineer a thrilling 94-89 comeback win over Nebraska in overtime.
READ MORE: No. 3 Iowa 94, Nebraska 89 (OT) Back-to-back-to-back
Defense could have been the story of the game after the way the game started for Iowa as well -- albeit in a much less positive light.
Nebraska made nearly half of its shots in the first half (17-of-37) and was particularly sharp from deep, going 7-of-16 from beyond the arc with makes by six different players. Iowa's defense struggled to match the energy and intensity of the Cornhusker players, despite having fresher legs than the Huskers, and too often Iowa seemed a step slow on close-outs, boxing out for a rebound, or hustling to a loose ball.
"Obviously the first half we were just very out of sorts in all sorts of ways, whether it was on defense, whether it was offensively," said Clark after the win.
The defensive script changed in the second half.
Nebraska shot just 22.2% (4-of-18) in the third quarter, as Iowa began to play with more intensity on the defensive end and gave the Huskers fewer open looks and less room to shoot overall. Nebraska shot better in the fourth quarter -- 6-of-14 (42.9%), including 3-of-8 from 3-point range -- but some key stops still made the difference for Iowa down the stretch.
When Nebraska took a 75-67 lead with 2:38 to play and stole the ball from Caitlin Clark five seconds later, the game seemed all but over. ESPN's win probability stat showed Nebraska with a 99.1% chance of winning the game at that point.
Instead, Nebraska missed three of its next four shots, which included three-point attempts by Callin Hake and Logan Nissley, as well as a missed layup by Alexis Markowski. A made layup by Markowski was the only shot Nebraska made during that stretch and the only basket they converted during the final 2:38 of the game.
As critical as the misses Iowa forced on those possessions? Hauling in the defensive rebounds as well -- Nebraska had 15 offensive boards in the game and used them to extend possessions or earn second chance points, but Iowa held them to one-and-done possessions in some of the game's biggest moments.
"Now everything is possible with defensive stops," said Bluder after Clark's three-pointer cut the Nebraska lead to just five points. "I think we ended up getting another stop, and Kate gets a three and we get another stop, and I come down and make a layup," added Clark of the closing sequence, which featured several key defensive stops.
After Iowa tied the game at 77-all on a driving layup by Clark, Nebraska had the ball with the shot clock off, ready to hold for a game-winning shot. Even with the benefit of a timeout with 9.8 seconds to play, the Huskers never came close to a good look for a potential winner.
Hannah Stuelke's aggressive move to the perimeter seemed to disrupt what Nebraska had planned, and Iowa was able to harass Nissley into a floater that was nowhere close to the rim.
In overtime, both teams traded haymaker blows on offense for the first four minutes of overtime, highlighted by dueling stepback 3-pointers by Nissley and Clark with a minute to play. The latter shot gave Iowa an 89-87 lead it would not relinquish.
Nebraska only got one more shot near the rim (a Markowski layup) on its final four possessions; the other three possessions ended in turnovers as a result of clutch Iowa defensive plays.
The first came on the possession after Clark's three gave Iowa an 89-87 lead. After a timeout, Nebraska's Jaz Shelley attempted a cross-court pass -- but Caitlin Clark read the flight of the ball and intercepted it in a play that would have made Cooper DeJean proud.
On Nebraska's next possession (now down 91-87 after pair of free throws by Clark), Nissley went to attempt a three-pointer -- only to have the ball emphatically swatted by Marshall. The 5'9" guard's block looked more at home near a volleyball net than a basketball sideline, but it was another key defensive play by the Hawkeyes.
"That was awesome... to get that block down the stretch in a championship game," said Sydney Affolter of Marshall's block. "We all know that she's so capable of that every game."
"She just got a hand up," Affolter said of how Marshall was able to get such a clean block. "Gabbie's a great defender. She always is able to get a hand in someone's shooting pocket. That was definitely a momentum shift."
Marshall's skill at getting her hands on the ball paid off two possessions later as well, when she read a pass near the sideline and deflected it out of bounds. A few moments later, Clark iced the Iowa win, stealing one last errant pass by Shelley.
Head coach Lisa Bluder praised Marshall's defense after the game as well. "Gabbie Marshall comes to play defense. She worked so hard out there," said Bluder. "She needs to ice bath out there for two days straight. She worked really, really hard."
Marshall, as the saying goes, has that dog in her. While her shot hasn't been falling all season, Marshall's defensive effort has never wavered. She always draws the assignment of guarding the opponent's toughest perimeter player and never shirks that responsibility. Marshall finished the game with extremely modest stats overall -- six points, three assists, one rebound, and that block -- but her impact goes beyond the box score, which ought to be visible to anyone who watched the last few minutes of the game.
Iowa is a team that makes its bones with offense; after scoring 95 in back-to-back games to open the Big Ten Tournament, Iowa finished with 94 points today (albeit with the benefit of five added minutes of overtime).
In the Big Ten Tournament championship game though, the victory was sealed by key defensive plays. If that's another tool Iowa has in its bag heading into the NCAA Tournament, it should make the Hawkeyes even more formidable as the season enters its final stretch.